Increasing hunger is a policy choice. The Big Ugly Bill already imposed the largest SNAP cut in the program’s history, and now, with the shutdown, millions more are at risk of losing access to the nutrition program when funding is depleted in two weeks.
The administration can―and must―take steps to protect SNAP benefits. SNAP running out of money would be catastrophic. Nearly 1 in 8 people, including 16 million children and 8 million people with disabilities, would go without the food assistance they need.
Two-thirds of the money needed to partially fund another month is in SNAP’s contingency fund, which must be used when regular funding falls short. The contingency fund has $6 billion, which is still short of the $8 billion needed to fully fund SNAP recipients per month. The administration can use other measures to ensure families get full November benefits―and they must act ASAP to give states guidance and enough time to get families the help they need to put food on the table.
Earlier this month, the Trump administration, via the United States Department of Agriculture, moved $300 million to WIC, the nutrition program that serves women, infants, and children. It’s time for the administration to do the same for SNAP, by tapping funds that are allowed by law to be used for this purpose.
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For millions, the ACA’s Marketplace insurance has provided affordable health coverage. And once the enhanced premium tax credits were enacted, ACA’s coverage for individuals got more affordable.
After serving as CHN’s executive director for more than two decades, Deborah has informed CHN’s Board of Directors and staff that she plans to retire at the end of June, 2026.
Imagine standing in line to register to vote—excited, maybe a little nervous—only to be told you can’t. Not because you’re ineligible, but because you don’t have the right kind of paperwork in your hand. No passport, no birth certificate? No vote.
Across the country, 22 million Americans use health care tax credits to afford their health care coverage. With costs for everything rising, from groceries to rent to health care, without the support of these tax credits as many as 4 million Americans could be priced out of health care they need.
Members of Congress should get back to work to meet three urgent needs now: extend the ACA tax credits, require that bipartisan funding enacted by Congress is spent, that autocratically frozen or cancelled funds for programs be made available now, and reopen government with funding levels adequate to prevent cuts.
At an interfaith event held at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church near the U.S. Capitol on October 9, lay and clergy faith leaders called on Congress to end the federal government shutdown by coming to swift agreement to keep health insurance affordable for millions of people and to protect other basic needs programs from reckless cutbacks.
At the Coalition on Human Needs, we share stories like these because they matter. They matter not only as data points, but as lived experiences — stories of families, workers, and seniors who are just trying to get by in a country where the basics have become harder and harder to afford. Read some of these stories and if they touched you, don’t just scroll past. Share this blog. Share the form to document the impact of cuts. Help us spread the word so that those most affected can be heard.
CHN urges Senators to vote no on any spending proposals, including H.R. 5371, the House’s partisan CR expected on the floor again this week, that does not include enforceable instructions on how congressionally approved funding must be spent and address health costs, including extending the enhanced ACA Premium Tax Credit before families get notices about skyrocketing health increases before November 1.
CHN urges Congress to vote no on any appropriations legislation, including a short-term CR, that does not include enforceable instructions on how congressionally approved funding must be spent in any spending package, along with extending expiring funding to stop efforts to “run out the clock”, and address health costs including extending the enhanced ACA Premium Tax Credit before families get notices about skyrocketing health increases before November 1.
The Coalition on Human Needs is small, but the human needs community is large. We are facing unprecedented attacks on our democratic rights to advocate to meet the needs of all of our people.
WIC funding cuts are likely to drive up the cost of health care and ultimately increase federal government spending. A robust WIC program can help keep more than 200,000 people out of poverty in a single year.
Time limits are a cut to SNAP and ignore the structural and personal barriers that many SNAP recipients face — including unstable job markets, part-time work with insufficient hours, unpaid caregiving, and jobs that do not provide documentation needed to prove work activity